What Exactly Is "Mobility"

So far, we’ve not only identified Mobility as the base of the pyramid, but we’ve very loosely defined it as being able to move our joints through a sufficient range of motion, under control, while maintaining good alignment of the spine.

When we address Mobility, we generally start by looking at the trunk of the body, or roughly the hips to the shoulders.

What we want to see is

1)Sufficient Mobility/Stability in the Hips

2)A core Strong enough to remain stable while the Hips and Shoulders move through their range of motion

3)A properly aligned low back/hip area (which also has a lot to do with core stability)

4)An upper spine area that can stand tall and turn side to side while the lower spine stays relatively stable

5)Mobile/Stable Shoulders

By focusing on the trunk, we’ll give ourselves a solid base of Mobility. This will allow us to keep our joints healthy, keep us spry as we age, and most importantly- allow us to strength train with proper technique.

You see, if you’re joints are misaligned, or lack a sufficient amount of motion or control, you’ll be lifting with poor technique and risking injury. Getting hurt in the weight room kind of goes against that whole Health First principle.

So how do we train for mobility? It’s really straight forward. We start every day with a dynamic warmup, which will get every joint in the body moving from head to toe. Then, we’ll decide (using the Functional Movement Screen) whether your immediate focus should be on Hips or Shoulders. You’ll work on that every day. As far as Core work- direct core strengthening and alignment will be peppered throughout the workouts/warmups/cooldowns.